Ánna-Katri Helander
- 1995
- Dancer
- Guovdageaidnu
Ánna-Katri Helander was born and raised in Guovdageaidnu but has roots from Deatnu. She started dancing oriental dance at the age of 13, a dance style that was for a long time the main focus of Ánna-Katri's artistic work. At the age of 16, she lived with her family for a year in Aotearoa (New Zealand) where she was introduced to Hip Hop. Slowly but surely, the focus and passion changed from oriental dance to Hip Hop, and since then a large part of her identity has consisted of mixing her Sámi cultural heritage into urban dance.
Dáiddadállu Stories, 2020. Film by: Forest people.
Most of Ánna-Katri's dance background is self-taught as there has never been a big dance community in Guovdageaidnu or in Sápmi. In the autumn of 2016, she moved to Oslo to attend the dance school Flow Dance Academy and deepen herself even more in Hip Hop and the urban dance styles.
As a Hip Hop dancer in Sápmi, she works according to the principles of being strong, proud and constantly evolving. She is closely linked to Sámi culture and Sápmi, but at the same time she works with urban youth culture and balances and therefore constantly moves between two worlds. In recent years, Ánna-Katri has worked as a freelancer based in Dáiddadállu and has cross-border assignments in Sápmi.
Photo: Steve Nilsen
Photo: Steve Nilsen
In 2017, Ánna-Katri beat out five others in the battle to become Young Artist of the Year for the indigenous festival Riddu Riđđu. In the summer of 2018, she premiered her multimedia dance performance, aindás, which was precisely a commissioned work for Riddu Riđđu. She created the performance together with two haka dancers, several filmmakers and artists.
Ánna-Katri brought Maori culture and naturally wove it into a performance with indigenous youth culture as a starting point. The result was a strong and innovative collaboration on an international basis between three young dancers. Aindás was Ánna-Katri's first major production and despite her age she already showed a high professional level in her work. In 2019, the performance had a repeat performance and toured both in Sápmi and Oslo for a period of three weeks.
Photo: Ørjan Marakatt Bertelsen.
Photo: Ørjan Marakatt Bertelsen.
Anna Katri Helander. Photo: Ørjan Marakatt Bertelsen.
Choreography
In Ánna-Katri´s establishment phase as a hip-hop dancer and choreographer in Sápmi and Northern Norway, she has already managed to do a lot. Ánna-Katri has choreographed, among other things, "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory", the play by Sámi Mánáid Teáhter in Deatnu.
In recent years, Ánna-Katri has also been a dancer and choreographer for the Sámi artist AKKIL. At Easter 2019, she choreographed AKKIL's performance during the prestigious opening of the Sámi Grand Prix. She was also the choreographer for AKKIL's debut concert during the Sámi festival Márkomannu in 2018.